HelloFresh raise $84.7 million at a $2.9 billion valuation, becoming Europe’s 4th most valuable company

Literally hours after BlaBlaCar's monster $200 million round propelled them to being Europe's fifth most valuable company with a $1.6 billion valuation, they've immediately been knocked down the pecking order by another Rocket Internet backed company.

Led by Baillie Gifford, the Scottish investment bank, HelloFresh, the Berlin-based company that delivers meal kits to subscribers for them to make their own meals has raised a further $84.7 million which now gives them a valuation of $2.9 billion.

This places them behind two other Rocket Internet backed companies, Global Fashion Group ($3.4 billion), Delivery Hero ($3.1 billion) and of course Spotify ($8.53 billion) when it comes to who are Europe's most valuable private venture backed companies.

They had previously raised a total of $193.5 million, with their last post-money valuation given as $705 million, a multiple of approximately x3.4 of total funding raised. Despite only raising a further $84.7 million, their post-money valuation has now jumped to a multiple of approximately x11 of total money raised, indicating that Baillie Gifford paid a premium. This is supported by Venture Beat reporting that despite the size of the investment Rocket Internet will only see its share of the company drop from 58.9 to 57.2%.

In any case, Europe has given birth to two unicorns in a matter of hours, and with three new funds announced in one morning yesterday (KLM, Nauta Capital, b-to-v) it's certainly been an eventful week for the European tech scene.